Institute of Human Settlements Studies, Ardhi University, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, P. O Box 35473, Dar es Salaam. kihilaj@gmail.com
Rural water supply has been a challenge in most developing countries including Tanzania. Portable water from the available sources is not in sufficient amounts such that that combination of several sources and technologies seem to be most practical. Rainwater harvesting is one of the options that can be considered to supplement the available water sources and is nowadays implemented in most communities. Through the Kisarawe water project “Enhancing access to safe and clean water” we managed to provide some 11 institutions with rainwater harvesting systems that had no alternative sources of water. This was facilitated through community participatory approaches where the community indicated their needs and their proposals before start of implementation The systems consisted of Ferro cement tanks and a guttering system and through the analysis made, it was found that the technology is relatively cheaper by 20% as compared to reinforced concrete, and 38% as compared to polyethylene tanks. The other comparable advantages of using ferro cement tanks included its ability to withstand water pressure as compared to plastic tanks its ease to construct as it could be done using local masonry. Apart from the findings from the case study for Kisarawe, a review of rainwater harvesting technologies and water quality for rainwater is also presented in this paper.
Rain water harvesting, Ferro cement tanks, Kisarawe, Tanzania
